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Thursday, May 19, 2005

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National

Goa bypoll key to government formation

Special Correspondent

Advani may begin campaign on May 20

NEW DELHI: The byelections to five Assembly seats in Goa are expected to be fought keenly by the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party for, the outcome could lead to government formation in the State where the Assembly is currently in suspended animation.

The two parties have 17 members or supporters each in a 40-member House. The membership status of Neri Rodrigues is disputed, as it has become the subject of a petition in a court. With the two parties evenly poised, the outcome could lead to government formation if one or the other is able to win at least 4 of the 5 seats.

Polling on June 2

The electoral battle in Goa — polling is on June 2 — has also become interesting as the Congress has named the four BJP former MLAs who defected to the BJP from the Congress to help the Manohar Parrikar government get a majority and who resigned their seats in January-February this year, triggering the political crisis that led to the fall of the Parrikar government.

The BJP has named its own candidates.

In Taleigao assembly segment, BJP candidate Pradeep Nagvenkar will take on the Congress nominee Babush Monsarat; in the Cambarjua constituency, Krishna Kuttikar of BJP will face Pandurang Madkekar fighting on a Congress ticket; in the Margao assembly seat, BJP's Sharmad Ratnirkar will take on the Congress nominee Digambar Kamat; and in Poinguinim, the fight will be between BJP's Ramesh Tawarkar and Isidore Fernandes of Congress.

All the four Congress candidates were with the Congress or its supporters at the time of the last Assembly poll. They had crossed over to the BJP but fell out with former Chief Minister Parrikar and resigned their seats in protest to rejoin the Congress party. The fifth byelection is in the Benaulim constituency where a vacancy was also caused by a resignation.

The Congress has left this seat for the Nationalist Congress Party under a seat sharing arrangement.

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